I'm sorry for the rant but I feel like I have no choice but to make this post. Pangolier is a hero I've loved ever since I picked him for the first time. Through thick and thin I've stood by my favorite musketeer but now, at his current state, I feel I'm at my wits end.
After the last rounds of nerfs I finally lost it, It was already hard enough to get past the laning stage as but it's practically unplayable into meta ranged heroes who have good poke (Viper, Dazzle, QoP) the mana nerfs have made it very hard to sustain and trading with shield is very costly as it has a longer cooldown and manacost. Shoving and roaming is near impossible without first getting arcane boots (which again is harder to buy with laning stage being tougher)
Mind you I understands what most of you're going to say, "you're just dogshit, I'm happy Pango is in the dumpster" which is what happens everytime I speak up on a hero receiving unjust treatment. Yes I'm not a good player but I'm still a passionate one and I understand it's hard to generate sympathy for a hero that many players find as frustrating as Pango.
Over time small nerfs Losing the disarm, Q range reduction, increased mana costs and much more, have accumulated and now have hurt him really hard.
I understand for a pro skew hero he has to be kept week especially during T1 but he holds a 41-43% winrate in all elo and has at best a 47% winrate in immortal and even then it's only the one tricks.
I've tried to make him work by rushing 5 branches 1 tango to make up for all the stat losses but it ain't enough. Feels impossible to trade, I'm not saying that Valve has to giga buff him until he's broken pick or ban again I just feel like he needs some adjustments so he's not as frustrating to play and yet doesn't feel like I'm playing Sonic's disabled brother at the same time.
Reverting the mana cost nerfs so I don't have to secure every rune on the map to push a single creep wave and bringing back the disarm is one. I don't mind in return getting some hits to his base armor or movement speed so that the pros, who know what they're doing can punish him easier, or lower his Rolling Thunder duration as pros can maximize the efficiency out of ability way more than your average player (let's be we've all been perma stunned by a Pango before).
Lowering the lucky shot duration so that people don't find him as frustrating to play against (remember when it used to silence too lol) and removing the technique where Swashbuckle can do extra damage if you dash through your target which only dedicated one tricks and pro players do is a nerf I'm willing to trade.
I hope this message meets IceFrog well when it comes to 7.35, I understand he has a busy job and he probably gets a lot of messages from players complaining to buff/nerf a hero so I won't bash him too much. I also understand that there are heroes like Tiny and Batrider who are in an even worse spot than Pango at the moment (Bat has 39% winrate in some brackets yikes)
I also hope that you can share your thoughts in the comments, I don't expect this to blow up but I at least want to hear what some of you think and some changes you'd like to see to Pango.
TL;DR I'm not asking for Pango to be giga-buffed, I'm asking for some changes so he doesn't feel like shit to play as and play against.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/17v6cr5/discussion_why_does_pangolier_feel_like_shit/